Back in 2010, the loosely Minneapolis-based quirk-folk jamboree Dark Dark Dark wrote songs that felt like they were about being outside (even if they weren't). That isn't to say they were usually upbeat, but optimism hovered on the periphery. Anyone who thinks a rock group featuring piano, accordion, cello, horns, and hardly any guitars can work would have to be an optimist. But an exploded bandcestuous romance led frontwoman Nona Marie Invie to concern herself with unpleasant matters of the inside on Who Needs Who. The characters in the smoky slow burner "It's a Secret" attempt and fail to turn one of life's question marks of doom into a period; the piano chords that open the title track sound arranged by someone watching raindrops silently splatter against a window. But then, art-pop triumph "Tell Me" puts it all over the top as the zenith of Triple D's young career. That's something to be optimistic about.

Zambri | House of Baasa For those of us of a certain age who remember when school dances had a strict four-fast-songs-then-one-slow-one policy, the memory of bouncing around to "Let's Hear It for the Boy" with the anticipation of "One More Night" or "Take My Breath Away" still makes our palms sweat with hormonal anxiety.

Grass Widow | Internal Logic There is stuff not to like about Internal Logic: a pair of instrumental interludes probably don't need to be there, and the drums aren't as gleefully chaotic as they were on 2010's Past Time.

Various Artists | Casual Victim Pile: Austin 2010 The notion that regional musical flavors exist independently in American cities is quickly becoming an archaic truism, seeing as how the world really is a stage these days, at least in the digital sense.

Unhappy birthday It seems like only yesterday that I was huddled in the corner of my room, staring listlessly out the window through tear-smeared glasses, absently singing along to “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want” and wondering when my life would finally show my heart a modicum of mercy. . . . Oh wait. That was yesterday.

Avi Buffalo | Avi Buffalo Look, I get it: the last thing we need right now is yet another band who can be described as “sun-baked,” “reverb-soaked,” or even just “psychedelic.” But Avi Buffalo (I know! An animal name to boot!) are worth your attention for a few reasons.

Guillermo Sexo | Secret Wild A Boston-area quartet discovered a middle-road solution to the dilemma confronted by every band who endures past its sophomore album.

Pepper Rabbit | Red Velvet Snow Ball Were Zach Braff still struggling to get Garden State made, there's no doubt one of these songs would have made the mix CD he was shopping around Hollywood with his script.

HOW TO DESTROY ANGELS | WELCOME OBLIVION | March 13, 2013 Whereas the monsters and ghosts of NIN songs can scream in your face and rip you to bits with their fangs, Welcome Oblivion tracks like techno-folk haunter "Ice Age" and the doom-pop jaunt "How Long?" make uncredited cameo appearances in your nightmares until you go insane and eat your own hands.

JOHNNY MARR | THE MESSENGER | February 25, 2013 Going solo is rarely a good decision. For every exception to the rule of who flourishes after unburdening themselves of the half-talents that have been holding them back — Justin Timberlake, for one — there are dozens of embarrassing Dee Dee Ramone rap albums that exist because Joey and Johnny Ramone weren't around to kibosh a terrible idea.

WHAT'S F'N NEXT? BUKE AND GASE | January 29, 2013 Almost every person I've told about Buke and Gase assumes that they'll hate this band, which isn't their fault.

BLEEDING RAINBOW | YEAH RIGHT | January 23, 2013 The only defect of the sort-of-but-not-really debut from Bleeding Rainbow (no longer called Reading Rainbow, possibly due to litigious ire festering under LeVar Burton's genial television persona) is that the Philly foursome merely hop off the launching point forged by Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, and a handful of others from the oft-exalted grunge era.